The Critique Session

Friday evening I attended a critique session by the critique group I belong to.  I was, I confess, a little nervous, because when I had taken a writing class decades ago, the criticism was very harsh, and not at all what I would consider to be constructive. But it is a rule in this group that we try to be as constructive as possible.  They genuinely seemed to like the beginning of my novel, as raw and crude as it was, and had some very useful notes for me.  “Notes” is a theatrical term for suggestions for improvement.  They asked some very insightful questions, and I took copious notes.  

When giving a critique, it is of paramount importance that you sandwich your critical suggestions between complimentary remarks about what you liked about the piece which you’re critiquing.  That way, the criticism doesn’t sting as much, and is more like suggestions for improvement.  Then too, I must have matured in the almost 50 years since taking that class, and my writing improved.  

In my critiques of the two other works which we discussed, I took pains to follow suit.  I genuinely enjoyed the 2 pieces we discussed, and my notes were based upon things which I failed to understand, but when the author explained  the background behind the things which eluded me.  Once I understood that the architecture was based upon medieval Japanese architecture, the image of the house became clear to me.  What I at first had taken to be wallpapered walls were, in actuality, walls made of paper.  I then remembered about shoji screens and the houses in the novel Shogun.  She had based it on anime,  being of that generation, but there wasn’t much difference in our imagined images.  

The other piece took place in Regency England, and from my reading and viewing of Jane Austen’s novels, I had very little trouble imagining the setting for that piece.  I had a very clear picture of what an early 19th century print shop would look, sound, and smell like, and populated it in my mind with representative characters.  

I look forward to this coming Friday, when the next critiquing session will be.  I also wonder what the sessions’ effects will be on my writing.